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Strategic Partnerships The What, Why, and How of Growing Your Team and Building Raving Fans In the big world of competitive business, cultivating positive, healthy and effective relationships are more important than ever to the success and life of your business. What They Are Strategic partnership, also known as strategic alliances, are when two businesses enter into some type of agreement to help both of the owners achieve more success. For instance, your bank, [...]

Finding the Right Team Members: Analyze Your Strengths and Weaknesses to Build Your Team There’s a lot you need to know and do in order to succeed in business, more than any one person can really manage on their own. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to go out and hire an employee right away. What you need is a team. Evaluate Your Team Your team doesn’t have to be employees. It can [...]

Building Your Supporting Cast Starting and growing a business is exciting, but one of the hardest challenges is building your supporting cast. I’m talking specifically about your executive team or core team members that help you grow your business, along with choosing outside services to support your organization. Legal Structure In the beginning it is typically just the entrepreneur who has an idea and a vision for what the business will be. Getting the business [...]

Celebrating 20 Years at the WBC: Looking Back An Interview with the Former WBC Executive Director Ramona Rudart Q: What was it like when the Women’s Business Center first started? A: Because all of our work had to be done within the time parameters of the OWBO grant, the initial phase of the WBC felt like building a road while trying to drive on it. Q: How was starting a nonprofit similar to starting a [...]

Buyer Personas: When Marketing is Just Helping, Selling is Easy One of the first marketing lessons I was taught was this: if you try to orient your marketing efforts to everyone, you’ll end up marketing to no one. In other words, when someone asks you who your product or service would be good for, and you reply, “Everyone would love it!”, I’ve got some news for you: you’re going to spend a lot of time and money [...]

3 Steps to Building a Business Brand Help! Should I really spend my money on design? The short answer is absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yes. And another yes. And no, I don’t sell branding services - so this is not a sales pitch. The toughest part about starting a business is that you have limited funds. What should you invest in? This is when you get taken for a ride the most, because advice is coming at you [...]